


Visiting Relatives

by GachMoBrea



Series: My Father, Barry Allen [12]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: "The Runaway Dinosaur.", (oops), AU, Alternate Universe, Aunt!Amy (OFC), Barry is Len's DAD, Barry is Lisa's COUSIN!, Father!Barry, Gen, Goes with the Series, Grandma!Nora, Grandpa!Henry, Little!Len, Nora Allen Lives!, Nora Allen has a younger Sister, OOC, Relatives, Son!Len, Spoiler Tags!, Step-Mom!Iris, Teenage!Lisa, Visiting, Visiting Relatives, len pov, yep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7816189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len feels like he's finally making progress with his new life....<br/>Then Barry takes him on a road trip to meet some of his relatives and his world is thrown for another loop.</p><p>Spoiler Tags!  :}</p>
            </blockquote>





	Visiting Relatives

Len plays it cool for the next couple of days, getting the 'lay of the land' and trying to figure out what the 'regular schedule' was. He's finally getting accustomed to this world's 'normal routine' when his dad throws something else into the mix.  
"We're going to visit your Grandma Nora and Grandpa Henry, today," Barry smiles at him Sunday morning as he packs a 'go bag'. "There are two new people living with them that you'll be happy to see."  
'So his mom IS still alive in this universe.' Len thinks as he pretends to be excited. 'Good for him.'  
"Barry, why are you packing all that stuff with you when you're only visiting for the day?" Joe asks, incredulously, as his son-in-law puts a change of clothes and three bottles of water into the 'go bag'.  
"You never know what you might run into," the speedster shrugs. "What if there's a flash flood? What if Len falls down and hurts himself? Or just gets plain dirty? He'll need a change of clothes. What if he gets sick again? What if he doesn't want to take a N-A-P? He might need 'certain things' if that happens."  
'It's so cute how they think I can't spell.' Len eats a cheese stick as the bag gets fuller and fuller.  
"I'm all ready!" Iris announces as she bounces down the stairs, small handbag swinging with each step. She bursts into giggles when she sees her husband's luggage.  
"You've gotta tell him this is ridiculous," Joe pleads with his daughter.  
"Bear," Iris smiles as she takes her husband's shoulders into her arms. "I think you've got enough things packed. Besides, Nora will want to smother Lenny with her own things."  
"I know, but-"  
"I'd rather get there on time with nothing but the clothes on our backs," Iris reaches through the hero's arms to zip up the bulging bag. "Then get there late with every little thing we could ever need."  
Barry sighs, "You're right."  
He turns in her arms and gives her a quick kiss, "I love you."  
"Get out of my house with that mush," Joe grumbles into his coffee.  
'I hope they don't live too far away.' Len frowns as he ushered out with his parents. 'I don't want a long car ride with that mush.'

 

Iris plays a movie for Len so that he isn't tortured. Step-Moms can be so wonderfully insightful.

 

When they get to the green, yellow, and brick house, there's someone waiting for them on the front steps.  
"Cousin Barry!" a familiar teenager girl comes running towards them excitedly. "Where is he? Where's Lenny?"  
It's at the sound of his own name coming from her lips that Len finally places the girl's face.  
It's Lisa.  
His baby sister is fulfilling her wish to be older than him.  
She's just doing it in another universe.  
"Cousin Lisa," Barry smiles as he gets out of the car, opening the back door for Len. "Were you waiting for us long?"  
"Only since Mom told me you were bringing my favorite relative in the whole wide world," teenage Lisa giggles, pulling Len out of the vehicle before he can step out and pulling him into her arms. "My gosh! He's still so easy to hold!"  
"Where am I on that list?" Barry fake pouts as the teen ignores him.  
She hugs Len tightly as she coos, "My cutie little Lenny!"  
Len rolls his eyes as he patiently waits for her to stop.

Another woman emerges from the house to shout at them, "Don't keep him all to yourself, Lisa! Come on in everyone!"  
"Coming mother!" Lisa chirps, carrying Len to the house.  
"I can walk," he tells her, hoping she'd let him 'impress her' with his 'big kid' step taking skills.  
"I know, baby," Lisa giggles, not even pretending to think about letting him down. "But I don't want your Aunt Amy to bite my head off about hoarding you later."  
'What does that have to do with me walking?' Len sighs as he slumps in his fate.

They're barely inside the house before Len's being plucked away from Lisa to be pulled into an unfamiliar woman's arms. He sees the hand coming in for a pinch and prepares himself.  
He could put up a fuss. It would be easy and the adults would chalk it up to a long car ride or something. But that might stress out his pops so he decides to take the pinch; for Barry's sake.  
It still hurts though.  
"You are just THE cutest thing in the universe," the woman coos, getting into Len's face to kiss his cheek several times in quick succession.  
"Mom!" Lisa whines. "You're gonna squeeze the life out of him! Give my little Lenny back!"

The pinch was one thing. Lisa being related to Barry somehow was another.  
But still....  
'They all think I'm a baby.' Len groans. 'Fantastic.'  
"Now, now, ladies," Nora Allen appears out of nowhere to chide them gently. "He's nearly five years old, our little Lenny. You should be nicer to him if you want him to like you when he gets older."  
Len likes Barry's mother. She's the voice of reason.  
"But he's SO cute!" Amy coos, pinching Len's cheek again. She caught him off guard. Next time, he's definitely dodging.  
"Enough girl-torture," Henry Allen cuts in, scooping Len up and throwing him over his shoulder. "It's time to see how my grandson does with a ball and bat."  
"Not this again," Amy rolls her eyes.  
"Doubt all you want!" the doctor laughs on his way out the back door. "He could be the next baseball star."  
"Len A." Lisa poses dramatically. "Baseball superstar."

 

The prospect of baseball is put off a little by Lisa's constant meddling.  
"Let the boy hold the bat himself!" Henry manages to growl politely, even though Len knows the man wants to bark at the teen. LEN wants to bark at her.  
Teenage Lisa keeps 'helping' Len play. She holds his bat. She tosses the ball from behind when he misses and says what 'a great hitter' he is.  
Was he supposed to be a complete idiot? Because not even HE can fake that.  
What's worse, is when he actually hits the ball himself, Lisa takes her meddling to new levels of ridiculous. She picks him up and runs him to the bases!  
"I can do it," he pouts to her, not even having the luxury of pretending it wasn't a natural pout. "Let me do it myself!"  
"I know you're a big boy," Lisa smiles at him, her face clearly reading she wasn't listening. "I'm just trying to help."  
After another 'home run' of Len being carried around the bases, he decides he's had enough. Every person has a breaking point, so Len pulls the 'ultimate weapon' every child possesses.  
He starts to cry.

It's like the world stops.

He lets go of everything, literally and metaphorically. When he opens his watery eyes enough to look, he sees Lisa with enormous eyes and Henry looking utterly shocked.  
Then there are arms surrounding him and soft tones and he starts to sniffle the tears away, hoping the message was received by this other version of his sister.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Lisa is saying in a mantra once Len's stopped bawling.  
Len offers her a long sniff and 'snuggles' in closer to his rescuer to see who it is.  
It's Barry, just like he thought it would be.  
"I'm sure he's just tired from the trip," his dad tells his cousin as Len's carried back inside. "He hasn't had his N-A-P yet. I'm sure he'll be right as rain as soon as he rests for a while."  
"Oh," the teenager nods with a sympathetic look. "Poor baby."  
Maybe if they stopped with the naps, then the rest of this mixed-up family would take Len seriously.  
Barry takes him upstairs and gets him nestled in bed.

There's a knock at the door. Nora Allen smiles down at them with a small book in her hands.  
"Would it be okay if I read to him, Barry?" she asks her son with a gentle smile.  
"Of course, Mom," Barry smiles back at her. He turns to Len and kisses his forehead, then gets up and rubs at his mother's arm before leaving the room.  
"What's that?" Len asks as the woman takes a seat at the head of the bed near his head.  
"This is "The Runaway Dinosaur"," his grandmother explains, showing him the cover. "I used to read this to your Daddy every night. Then he used to read it to you and you liked it so much you carried it everywhere."  
"Did I destroy it?" he guesses, not recognizing the book from the house at all.  
Nora laughs lightly, kissing the top of his head, "Maybe. But that's not important. Books can be replaced. People can't."  
She opens the book and reads to him softly, "Once there was a little dinosaur called a Maiasaur..."

He falls asleep at the end.

 

Len comes out of sleep with the uncomfortable feeling of someone watching him. He rolls over, cracking his eyes open slightly to see who it is and subsequently wonders if it'd be better to play possum for a while longer.  
Lisa is staring at him through the crack in the bedroom door. She trying so hard not to breath heavily that it's coming in creepy, random intervals.  
He rolls over, tries to ignore her.  
'Then again.' His mind unhelpfully supplies. 'If you start taking long naps, they'll never let you stop taking them.'  
With an annoyed groan disguised as a waking up stretch, Len shows his audience that he's awake.  
"Lenny's awake!" Lisa practically shouts, running for him. "Do you have to use the potty, baby?"  
He huffs a tired breath. 'When do we leave?' 

He draws out his time in the bathroom, calculating the probabilities of jumping out the window to keep his mind off what's impatiently waiting on the other side of the door. Getting Lisa to let him go by himself required a threat of tears.  
"Are you almost done, Lenny?" Lisa speaks through the door. Thankfully, he remembered to lock it.  
"Yeah," he calls out to her, drying each finger one at a time.  
When he finally has to open the door, he announces, "I'm hungry."  
"I'll cut you up some fruit!" Lisa is overjoyed to do something for him, which is an interesting change of pace from 'his' Lisa. Looking passed the babying, she was technically at his beck and call.

 

Downstairs, that Len was not allowed to walk down, the adults are having a conversation at the table.  
"That's when I KNEW I had to get out of there," Aunt Amy is saying with a frown and shake of her head. "Taught HIM what's what before I left, though."  
"Good for you," Iris smiles at her. She looks over to Len to wink at him.  
"He didn't deserve to have you, Amy," Nora nods.  
"No one is good enough for your little sister," Henry smiles, pulling his wife into a hug. "But you're absolutely right. That man was a monster. I'm glad you're living here."  
"Me too," Amy sighs, relaxing into her chair and noticing Len and Lisa for the first time. "Baby's here!"  
"I'm not a baby," comes flying out of Len's mouth without him even thinking about it.  
Everyone laughs and he rolls his eyes.  
"I warned you," his grandmother says with a shrug. "Be nice now or you'll get the cold shoulder in the future."  
"I'm being nice!" Lisa points out as she finally puts Len down to use the knife. He was starting to feel like a baby doll. "I'm getting him fruit!"  
"Make sure the pieces aren't as small as last time," Barry requests as his cousin starts cutting the apple. "He's got all his teeth, Lis. He eats apple quarters at home."  
"Bartscostemule," the teenager tries to sound like 'an adult' but the obvious mistake in the name makes it fall flat. "I can handle cutting an apple."  
"I know that," her cousin chuckles. Ignoring the verbal slaughter of his full, first name. "I'm just making a request, as Len's father, that you give him pieces of fruit. Instead of miniscule tidbits."  
Lisa grumbles something as she cuts the apple into eight slices. She puts them onto a plate and pulls Len into her lap so he can eat them at the table.  
"Thank you," Len offers in his 'peppy-polite' voice, shoving an entire slice into his mouth to prove a point.  
"Don't choke!" Lisa gasps. She turns a glare to Barry. "And YOU give it to him in FOUR slices."  
His dad looks away with a shake of his head.  
Len makes sure to chew completely as he holds back his laughter. It wouldn't help his case if he actually choked.

 

The rest of the day consists of Len being paraded around the house to participate in different activities by Lisa. That 'baby doll' feeling only grows and he resorts to treats of tears whenever his first cousin once removed tries anything.  
Not being the oblivious child everyone assumed he was, Len was able to pick up enough from the adult's conversations to figure out where he stood in this ever growing family tree.

 

Dinner was a beacon of hope to Len. Dinner meant it was soon going to be bed time. Bed time meant that they were going to go home.  
Unfortunately, Lisa also knew this.  
"Can't they stay the night?" she pleads with Nora as they eat, only pausing with her 'puppy dog eyes' to shovel more food into Len's mouth. The apple pieces were the last thing he was allowed to eat by himself.  
Len did find gratitude that he didn't have to drink out of a bottle. The sippy cup was entirely Lisa's fault after he tried to keep the regular cup in his hand when she tried to 'help' him with that too and it ended up spilling.  
Now, as he holds onto his cup like a lifeline and keeps track of time with his view of the kitchen clock, he desperately wishes on anything that's listening to be able to go home.  
"Barry has to be at work tomorrow," Nora lets the girl down easy and lifts Len's spirits at the same time. "That's why Joe couldn't come. He was working a case and Barry will have to test the evidence when he gets back."  
Lisa pouts, looking to Len, "Criminals ruin everything."  
'Why are you looking at me?' Len smiles at her. She can take it however she wants. He's just glad he won't have to put up with her babying much longer.  
"Make sure you keep us updated on life in general," Amy orders with a point of her fork. "You guys don't live that far away. I can always pop in there if you forget to keep us updated."  
'Oh please no.' Len grimaces around another spoon of food.  
"I'll make sure you're kept up to date," Iris assures them, pulling her husband into a small side hug. "Barry can get a little scatter brained."  
"Joe says he rushes around so that he can be late," Lisa giggles, faking innocence when she gets a glare from her cousin.

 

"I love you," Nora pulls Len into a hug after Lisa finally lets him go. "Be nice to you Daddy for me, okay?"  
"Okay," Len smiles. He can at least try. For her sake.  
"Till next time, Slugger," Henry hugs his son. "Don't be a stranger."  
Iris gives her hugs and Len gets a few dozen more from the adults, before they finally make it to the car and manage to drive away.

 

Once the house has disappeared from the back window, Iris starts to giggle.  
Barry soon joins in.  
"Lisa is hopeless!" his step-mom wheezes in between more giggling. "Len was like her little rag doll!"  
"Did you see the LOOK she gave me when he put that apple slice in his mouth?" his father adds. "For a moment there, I forgot who was the parent!"  
"And Amy, oh," the reporter has to take a moment to collect herself. "When she heard poor Len crying, she about nearly threw herself out the window to save him!"  
"I'm a little glad she was washing dishes at the time," the speedster jokes. "I don't want to imagine how our boy would take going from one babying relative to another."  
The couple laugh together a little more before Iris adds, "And they wonder why we never stay the night."  
Len relaxes into his seat. He likes these two. They understand him. (Sometimes.)

-

**Author's Note:**

> JUST In Case I don't write this out properly in the future. (So that y'all don't get yerselves mixed up.):::  
> Nora Allen's younger sister, Amelia "Amy" Thompson is a divorcée with one daughter, Lisa. She moved in with the Allen's after the divorce/separation. Barry and Iris moved in with Joe after their marriage to be closer to Barry's work.  
> So Lisa is Barry's Cousin.  
> ^+ Your parent's first cousin is your first cousin once removed.
> 
> **P.S. I own nothing.


End file.
